4-0 Forestry Quarterly. 



There is a rapid decrease in rate of height growth under all 

 conditions after the first year; this continues to a small degree 

 (as shown for one year here, and from repeated observation in 

 older stock) in later years. In the less favorable situations the 

 rate of annual growth shows a less rapid decrease. An average 

 of the three tables above gives : first year, ioo per cent. ; second 

 year, 46.6 per cent. ; third year, 38.2 per cent. The amount of 

 growth falls to less than one half after the first year, and di- 

 minishes thereafter at a slow rate. 



Effect of Midzvinter and Late Spring Cutting Upon Sizes of 

 Sprouts. — An excellent opportunity to study the effect of winter 

 and late spring cutting was afforded in the Pennsylvania tract. 

 Sound, mature Chestnut trees of seedling origin had been selected 

 and removed for poles during the month of May, while a clear- 

 cutting of the same type on a similar site had been made on 

 closely adjoining ground during the December and January pre- 

 vious. The region was visited in December at the end of the 

 first season's growth of sprouts, and measurements made which 

 gave the following results : 



Season of Average Number Average Heights Average 



cutting of sprouts of sprouts in diameter 



parent stump. per stump. feet. of sprouts 



(Inches). 



Midwinter, 22 6.15 .42 



May, 35 3-5 23 



The sprouts from the May cutting, while more numerous, are 

 decidedly inferior in quality and size. The average show them 

 to be about one half normal size. Uniformly, the tips of these 

 shoots are soft, and the wood cells imperfectly lignified for a 

 distance of 8 to 15 inches down the stem at the end of the season, 

 and hence from 30 per cent, to 50 per cent, of the growth is 

 winter-killed. In December, the thin, soft and pliable, light 

 green leaves, overtaken by early frosts, were found clinging 

 tightly to these immature shoots, in marked contrast with the 

 tough, thick, rigid, dark-brown leaves of the normal, full-season 

 shoots. 



If cutting advances into the summer months the chances of 

 virile sprouts become less up to or beyond midsummer. The 

 numbers of sprouts produced is less and the season for growth 

 short. It appears that root pressure constitutes an influencing 



